The President made me a little angry yesterday. He started to make a pitch for more money for the military, implying that if we had had more money devoted to the military, the tragedy would have been prevented.
I don’t think so. Unless military jets were employed to patrol the skies above every landmark, twenty-four hours a day. Don’t squeak your personal agenda into this, Dubya. Don’t turn this into a personal telethon for military spending.
Biggest news yesterday: they found a black box. Ok. Yep. I’m not certain why this was so exciting. We KNOW the plane did not have mechanical failure. We are fairly certain that the terrorists were flying the plane. We have good suspicion that the plane in Pennsylvania was somehow diverted from its grisly route by some means and we have good reason to believe it was due to actions taken by several heroic passengers. The black box will change nothing. No one will be shouting his or her master plan, ala a James Bond movie. No one will tell us that bin Laden was at the source.
I doubt that we needed media coverage on the four major networks regarding this. Even PBS had only news coverage on. We’ve learned nothing new. Nothing will bring them back. Stop sucking up ratings by shoving the horror down our throats. I’m fairly certain that wrestling is going to have fabulous ratings, as that was the only thing on television last night. Ironically, I believe the program is called ‘Raw Is War’ or something like that. How many people tried to assuage their agony by watching beefy men pummel each other around a roped ring?
In so many ways, the media is morally corrupt. Lawyers are called sharks, but the media is far worse (and I say this as someone who is a freelance writer and also is married to a journalist). When they smell blood, they circle. Last night, I watched a commentator cut off a survivor when they tried to thank the firefighters, medical workers, and volunteers who helped them. No thanks, Mister, if it isn’t about misery and horror, I’m not airing it. I watched as a reporter interviewed a man who had just been pulled out of the rubble, after being trapped for two days beneath the waste. He asked the dazed man ‘Are you going to back and help them search for people now?’ No. I think he’s going to get a drink of water and maybe go to the hospital and be checked by physicians, but thanks for trivializing the experience. I’m not certain why this offended me so much. Perhaps the fact that the reporter was giving the impression that it was a sin to do anything other than help out, yet he was there with a microphone, asking inane questions and making obtuse observations.
At first I was behind the whole grassroots memorials that were being circulated. First Thursday was ‘Wear Red White and Blue’ day and even though it reminded me of those spirit days we had in high school, I went along with it. Because I thought it was important. Then yesterday, I got another email asking us to wear to wear Red, White & Blue TODAY. I was confused’ in the first place, I was already WEARING my one patriotic outfit, I don’t have two. Secondly, Monitor said it best, ‘Who does that help? This isn’t a costume party.’ Then another email telling people to drive around with their lights on. I did when I thought of it yesterday, and I saw a bunch of people with their lights on, but I don’t know if it was because it was a little gloomy. Or maybe they had daytime running lights.
Now, I’ve received another email telling everyone to stop what they are doing at 7:00 PM tonight and go outside and light a candle. I will likely do this, because it is a lovely gesture, plus Esteban is interested in doing this, yet I think it should have been better thought out. 7:00 pm Central time? Eastern? What? For how long? A friend forwarded me the email with the comment ‘This reminds me of that Coke commercial in the 70’s.’ and now I know that I’m going to have ‘I’d like to buy the world a Coke’ stuck in my head as I stand out in my front yard with my candle.
I think I’ve definitely passed from the sadness stage into the pissed off stage, don’t you? I think this will be the last journal entry I do on this subject, because’..
Just because.
